1962 Single Cab restoration

[SOAR]

Good Day everyone!

I'm Rick and I own/operate a classic vehicle restoration shop, and now have a customer that want's me to restore this 1962 Single Cab. My job with this resto is to fix all the metal work and bring it up into primer ready for paint.

If this is like all the other forums I'm sure you all will like pics, so here goes,

Picking it up from the owner,

Lots of parts!

Stop for chow on the way home,

Back at the shop,

First order of business will be to place it on my rotisserie and off the cart, then media blast everything and start replacing metal, lots of fun!



cheers

[whereswaldie]

Hey there TheSamba, I'm the son of the owner of this bus. I'll chime in with some background info regarding this truck:

First off, it was built April 07, 1962, original colour L87 Pearl White. Other m-code info:

362 - North American export model
071 - Dual treasure chests
195 - Adjustable bench seat

It was originally delivered to Houston/San Antonio, Texas but sometime over the years it made it to Ontario, Canada. From there, the theory is it underwent a shoddy restoration job (LOTS of bondo, fibreglass, etc). It made it to primer and then kind of stayed in that state of limbo for 15+ years. Luckily, no parts were lost and it was not hacked up, as far as we can tell.

It was then purchased by another local VW fan with the intentions of reversing the initial restoration, and brought to Quebec. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, he decided to sell it.

That's where we come in.

This is not our first VW, nor is it our first split bus. My dad has been wrenching on VWs since the early 70s, but really only started his collection in the 90s. I grew up around these cars and knew how to drop an air cooled engine before I could even reach the pedals to drive. I bought my first car, the '69 Beetle in the pic below, for $500 at 16 (18 now), and the VW "bug" (pun intended) has infected me now too.

The VW market is somewhat scarce here in salty Quebec, but they are out there! When this one came up on our local Kijiji for a reasonable price, we jumped on it. We picked it up in Spring 2015 and brought it home to begin the nerve-wracking task of undoing the previous restoration. We knew of some visible rust, but had no idea what was hidden beneath the bondo. Here it is coming home for the first time:

In all, we removed at least a 1/4" of bondo from the nose, bondo+fibreglass from the rear fenders and rear corners. The dog legs, jack points, lower nose, b-pillar, c-pillar and rockers all need to be replaced. Luckily the treasure chest/gas tank area is very dry, and only a few inches of the outer floor need to be replaced. But, it's also possible more will be exposed after media blasting. A large order of Funky Green panels was in order from Monkey Nuts in Charlotte, NC.

Even though the bus came already in pieces and completely stripped, the previous owner(s) were very organized and so far the only piece missing after a complete inventory is one wiper arm!

My dad and I have already rebuilt the engine (not sure of originality, still waiting for birth certificate to confirm), and are working on the rest of the mechanicals. We are both however more mechanically inclined and prefer to leave the bodywork to professionals.

This is where Rick, the author of this thread, comes in. We had been looking for a body man for some time, since my dad's old body guy recently retired. I came across an ad for Rick's business Southern Ontario Auto Restore online, and I showed him photos of our project. We met in person to go over the truck and he seemed eager to help us with our restoration even though this would be his first bus restoration. Rick is a really nice guy and his eagerness and enthusiasm convinced us. This past weekend, the bus was picked up along with the first batch of KF panels and Rick is starting to work his magic! He will be doing the metal work and finishing up to primer, and potentially also paint. My dad and I will then take over to finish the mechanical restoration.

Looking through some of his other build threads, I think we can expect very detailed and thorough updates, which I will really be looking forward to.

Packed and ready to roll behind Rick's truck:

Back to you Rick.
_________________
Piers
Instagram: @pierswaldie

'59 Standard Beetle
'62 Canadian Standard Beetle
'62 Beetle
'62 Single Cab
'65 Kombi
'69 Standard Beetle
'74 Type 181 'Thing'

[busmania]

Very nice. I'll look forward to following!

[SOAR]

Well I got 'er on to the rotisserie now!

Used two separate attachment points for the rear, didn't think the 8mm bumper bolts would have done the job lol.

The two 10mm front bumper mounts are good to go.

So now we wait for the good weather to roll it out for the media blasting.



cheers
_________________
[size=150]Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.[/size]

[size=85]Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09[/size]

My 1977 Town Car build

My 1964 Impala build

[SOAR]

Got some more work done today, started on the front nose, cut away all the rot and started patching it up. This hidden rust will be dealt with before the new metal gets welded in.

The carnage,

Starting the cuts on the left side rockers and treasure chest floor.

still waiting on some parts to come in...



cheers
_________________
[size=150]Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.[/size]

[size=85]Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09[/size]

My 1977 Town Car build

My 1964 Impala build

[SOAR]

Got some more work done to the '62,

Most of the right side cancer has been removed, what is left will be gone tomorrow. This is where 80% of the time is spent, the surgical removal of the rusted panels. Most of the replacement parts fit well enough, but there are some issues that I will go over in detail when the parts go on for good.

The major parts being replaced are;

Inner rockers,
Outer rockers,
Middle rocker support,
Front cab corners,
Outer treasure chest floors,
All jack points,
Rear 1/4's
Rear lower corners,
Inner dog legs,
Outer dog legs,
Outer cab floors,
Front nose lower section,
Two frame crossmembers.

Plus there are some frame patches to fabricate.

Fun Fun

cheers
_________________
[size=150]Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.[/size]

[size=85]Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09[/size]

My 1977 Town Car build

My 1964 Impala build

[SOAR]

Well we have got a lot more done with the 62,

Most of the right side is complete minus the grinding,

The left side has really given us an argument, nothing wants to line up properly. We had to dig pretty deep on this side to cutout the corrosion.

New crossmembers and jack points being installed. Still waiting on a C pillar and rear left pillar from KF,

We spent almost three days just to get the left front fender to fit correctly.

More to follow!



cheers
_________________
[size=150]Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.[/size]

[size=85]Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09[/size]

My 1977 Town Car build

My 1964 Impala build

[SOAR]

Good day all,

Well we have finished with all the panel replacement and part fabrication on the main body! One thing I found out while sourcing parts is that there aren't too many split bus single cabs with the treasure chest doors on both sides. This posed a little bit of an issue trying to find the door pillars on the drivers side. After sorting all that out we got down to business and finished off the hot work.

Hopefully on Monday or Tuesday the body will get its second trip through the sand blaster for a more thorough cleaning and we will get it into epoxy primer right away!

Some pics for your viewing pleasure...

Still have to cut out the hole for the tail light ...

Getting the door gaps even was quite the chore, with all the metal that had rotted away the structure was getting twisted and bent where it didn't need to be , all good now!

Had to insert a few patches on the frame members, but overall this was in pretty good shape,

The rotisserie sure makes life easy!

Until next time!



cheers
_________________
[size=150]Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.[/size]

[size=85]Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09[/size]

My 1977 Town Car build

My 1964 Impala build

[SOAR]

Down the home stretch now!

Almost ready to deliver to the customer where the final assembly will take place,

Stage one for paint was to paint the inside of the engine bay, the inside of the cab and the roof and door jambs,

Then we did the drop sides, the insides of all the doors and tailgate,

Then we masked the roof and insides and hung the doors,

Then the rest got painted,

cheers
_________________
[size=150]Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.[/size]

[size=85]Yugoslavia '94' , Israel/Syria '99 , Bosnia '02 , Afghanistan '08-'09[/size]

My 1977 Town Car build

My 1964 Impala build

[Spike0180]

*Sniffs in deeply* ... AAAAaaahhhhhh, you gotta love the smell of fresh paint in the morning!
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[chrisflstf]

What was the tab for the body work and paint?

[Skim]

Kick ass
_________________
GFK
Samba since before the towers collapsed. Still here.
1953 Kabriolet
1954 Sunroof
1959 Lowlight Ghia vert
1960 Lt Grey Double Cab SMZ LEGIT
1963 Deluxe Turkis Walk Thru 15 Window OG Paint

[SOAR]

[ronjonlasvegas]

First off the work you have done on this single cab looks top notch. Nice job saving this truck. It looks great with paint now on.

Earlier in the thread you said this truck was born April 7, 1962. The rear wheel arches you used are the lipped variety which are correct for 63-67 buses. Did the current owner request those be changed? I looked it up and this bus would have come with the flat rear wheel arches originally as those did not change until July 30, 1962.
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September 1964 Standard Sunroof walk through SWR/BG original paint.

[VWsArent4Hippies]

Paint looks nice, any shots of the bottom side painted?

Looks like the weld got missed attaching the front outer bumper brackets to the outer dogleg skins. Hope those don’t flop around too much
_________________

[ZENVWDRIVER]

pretty color when first shot
_________________
5/50, pastel green 11G - SOLD
8/50, gray 11A Beetle
6/52, pastel green 11C - SOLD
11/4/52, black Zwitter - SOLD to my little bro.
1954 Porsche, pre A, with VW 36 horse- SOLD
1/54, black 11C Beetle - TRADED
2/55 Iceland green Beetle, on a 1965 pan
3/55 113 Beetle, stratos silver
1955 Messerschmitt KR175 - SOLD, sadly
1960 single cab
1962 SO33, with SO 42 interior
9/63 Pacific blue, Ghia
'87 Toyota MR2
'02 WestFORDia E-150, GAVE TO OUR SON

All super-heroes, wear a MASK

[whereswaldie]

[ryans65]

Love Seeing the single cab builds! Nice work, wish you were closer so you could finish and paint my beater!